The term 'unicorn,' used to describe a privately-owned start-up with a value of over $1bn, marks something as rare to the point of becoming magical, but the last two years have seen a handful of Irish unicorns confirm their status among the biggest companies in the world.

Ireland's mature tech ecosystem is a boon to ambitious start-ups, of course, as they often work close to some of the biggest companies in the world and have access to venture capitalists who are willing and ready to invest in their big ideas, and help them scale rapidly.

Although the Collison brothers are a major Irish success story, they moved from Palo Alto to found Stripe (now valued at around $68bn), but a glut of Irish-founded firms have passed the $1bn barrier in their wake -- these are Ireland's unicorns.

Intercom

US-headquartered software firm Intercom became the first Irish unicorn in 2018, seven years after being established by Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee, Dave Barrett and Eoghan McCabe in a Dublin coffee shop.

The San Francisco-based customer service software business now pulls in revenues in excess of $200m per year, and employs around 950 people after cutting 49 staff in September in anticipation of a global economic slowdown.

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The company will move to a new office on Earlsfort Terrace next year, and its services are used by more than 25,000 organisations with 600m end users worldwide, including Amazon and Lyft.

Workhuman

Workhuman, formerly known as Globoforce, took a circuitous route to unicorn status, being founded by Eric Mosley and Eddie Reynolds in 1999 and, powered by the Covid, growing turnover to $681m in 2020, being valued at $1.2bn the same year.

The Massachusetts and Dublin-headquartered company runs employee inventive schemes for large companies and more than 6m employees in 170 countries use its rewards platform.

The firm became a unicorn after Intermediate Capital Group acquired a 10% stake for $120m. Workhuman employs more than 600 people, more than half of whom are based in Dublin.

Fenergo

Fenergo became Ireland's third unicorn in April 2021 after selling a majority stake for $600m that valued the fintech company at over $1.1bn, and it was acquired by private equity firms Astorg and Bridgepoint soon after.

Fenergo develops regulatory compliance and client data management software for financial institutions, including Aviva, Bank of China, Danske Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS among its clients.

The former Technology Ireland Company of the Year acquired Dutch anti-money laundering tech firm Sentinels in April, and annual revenues at the firm are close to €100m.

LetsGetChecked

Home testing start-up LetsGetChecked achieved unicorn status in June 2021 after a $150m Series D funding round, although the company laid off a number of staff in Dublin over the summer following several acquisitions.

The Peter Foley-founded firm, whose backers include Rory McIlroy, provides home testing for sexual health, cholesterol, general health, and Covid-19, and has offices in Dublin and the US.

Last month the company, established in 2015, appointed Kathleen Lynch as SVP of global government affairs as it seeks to engage with healthcare policymakers internationally. LetsGetChecked has more than 300 corporate customers, including Fortune 500 companies.

Flipdish

Flipdish was valued at $1.25bn after announcing investment funding of $100m from Chinese tech giant Tencent in January, which the company said it would invest in expanding globally, funding R&D, and hire 700 new staff in 2022.

Founded by brothers Conor McCarthy and James McCarthy in 2015, Flipdish provides technology to help food and hospitality businesses handle online ordering for collection and delivery, QR code ordering and pay-at-table as well as self-service kiosks, customer loyalty and digital marketing.

The company, which operates in 14 countries, in April launched a website directory with free listings to local restaurants and takeaways as it seeks to bypass delivery apps such as Just Eat and Deliveroo.

Wayflyer

Wayflyer attained unicorn status in February when it was valued at $1.6bn after raising $150m in Series B funding from DST Global and QED Ventures. It has since gone on to raise more than $550m in debt financing from JP Morgan and Credit Suisse.

The e-commerce financier, founded by Jack Pierse and Aidan Corbett, lends working capital to online vendors to help them stock up on inventory and invest in advertising, which is then repaid as a percentage of the merchant's daily sales revenue.

Wayflyer employs around 455 people between its offices in Ireland, the UK, the US and Australia, and this year moved into financing influencers with its acquisition of Peblo.

TransferMate

Kilkenny-founded TransferMate joined the unicorn club in May after a $70m funding round, with CEO Sinead Fitzmaurice becoming the first woman to lead an Irish unicorn.

The B2B payments technology firm was established by Terry Clune in 2010 and now operates globally, allowing companies to make cross-border payments in 201 countries and 141 currencies.

TransferMate said the $70m would be used to expand its teams globally and further invest in its technology innovation and product suite. The company has raised total funding of $130m to date.

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